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A wild tiger chase behind Beijing’s invisible India bus
Last week, for the first time ever, one public bus in China was wrapped on all sides with the Incredible India advertisement.
I wanted to ride on that solitary Yindu (India) bus. But first, I had to find it among over 18,000 public buses moving 13 million around Beijing every day. What better way, I thought, to get the Chinese to talk about India than on the top-deck of this particular bus?
My decision threw a dozen Chinese people into what became a three-day wild tiger chase. By day two, the Chinese girl accompanying me on the hunt suspected that the big bus existed in my incredible imagination.
Nobody knew the number of the double-decker let loose with pictures of plump tigers, size-zero yoga girls, Kerala boatmen, Rajasthan camels and a timetable that changed daily on a route spread over five districts.
For a month, one public bus in Beijing will advertise India. (Source: India Tourism, Beijing)
Beijing has 17 million people, and more Italians than the 500-odd Indian families. Any India event becomes a big deal for us. So two dancing girls from Xinjiang in northwest China performed an Umrao Jaan number the day the empty bus was dressed in pink balloons and flagged off from the Westin, a new five-star hotel on its route.
The bus left before I could say I wanted to be on it. The Chinese travel agents left with Slumdog Millionaire DVD gift-bags.
The next day, a Chinese employee at the India Tourism office (on floor 29 of a glittering skyscraper built on a former vegetable market) called the bus company to locate ‘the bus with the Yindu ad’. Many calls later she found out that it was Bus Number 8. On day 2, somebody told her it would pass by a stop in the central business district at 3.30 pm.
So travel agent Jiao Lingling (meaning clever) and I abandoned work and forgot our gloves and winter paraphernalia to stalk the bus — in a taxi. The driver asked why we were excited and got excited too as we hurtled to the stop.
For five minutes, Jiao and I did what all girls in China say to get along. We assured each other we were both so slim. She praised my eyes and told me that girls in southern China are slimmer than their northern counterparts in Beijing.
After five icy minutes, Bus Number 8 arrived. It was a double-decker.
It was the wrong bus.
During one long cold hour, Number 8 arrived nine times. Jiao circled each bus to find tigers. We stood watching ads for liquor, HSBC and China Mobile. There are hardly any public benches in Beijing, none even at Tiananmen Square.
We declared that we were going to die out in the cold and gave up.
At home, I got a call that the bus was ‘late’. I should have known. The India bus would follow India Standard Time even in China.
On day three, Jiao advised me to go to a bus station at the end of a garbage-strewn lane in a dull suburb an hour away from the city-centre. Someone at the station who had seen the Yindu bus said it might leave at 3 pm.
“This Yindu journalist…’’ Jiao narrated at the station office, as she would several times that day. They told us to check every bus at the station.
We checked.
Then we glumly climbed into an empty bus. As the icy seats began to warm up, the driver had to set off. We climbed moodily in and out of three buses over one hour. Number 8 arrived five times but not my Invisible India bus with the handsome tigers.
Suddenly, a woman searching for us inside buses peeped in: Take Bus Number 8 with number 311 on its door at 4 pm”.
“I thought there is no such bus,’’ confessed an astonished Jiao when 311 entered the desolate station with its tigers and resplendent dancers. It is the best-dressed bus in Beijing.
Jiao’s English name is Angel. She had come along to help translate and ask passengers my two questions inspired by the fact that barely one lakh Chinese per year visit India. So Angel asked, what do you think of the ad and India? Can you name two or three things you know about India?
At each stop, a dozen people rushed into the bus that declared ‘a nation of breathtaking wonders welcomes you!’’ I thought it was impossible not to notice a bus-sized advertisement. Nobody had noticed the advertisement.
Our interviews went like this:
Ticket selling woman in blue uniform: The ad? Oh. India? I don’t know. I don’t know.
Salesman: I didn’t see the ad. I don’t know India.
Young accountant in fake pashmina shawl: I didn’t see the ad. I don’t know India. There was a war in Mumbai.
Two 17-year-old girls: We didn’t see the ad. India is…we think Indian girls are very beautiful and can dance.
Middle-aged chemistry researcher in brown jacket: I didn’t see the ad. India has a big population. Indian agriculture is developed. India is one of the four famous civilised countries”.
Which are the other three civilised countries, we asked, puzzled.
“I don’t know.’’
(8 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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Reshma,
Kudos to your effort, I would love to spot the bus in Beijing . As for the comments and opinion about the beijingers in general..I would only say, was it not expected out of them ?? In just a sentence, ” For a frog in the well, that’s his world” . I mean no offence to the people here, but sadly that is the state of affairs
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Noooooooooooo!
This is hysterical. Puts us firmly in our place, no?
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Reshma Reply:
March 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Yes Bunny, and this piece was partly inspired by the fact that the Chinese graduate quoted in my previous blog had asked me if India was near Nepal…not near China
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I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alanna
http://www.craigslisthelper.info
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Reshma Reply:
March 10th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Thanks Alanna
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Brilliantly written, and a lot of effort put in to find the bus, I must say.
The reactions were somewhat expected,though. I suppose there’s barely anthing about India in Chinese circles , is there?Ironic,that people living 7000 miles across the globe are more aware of India than those living in a country sharing its border with us. (A border dispute as well,I might add)
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Reshma Reply:
March 10th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Thanks…the reactions were somewhat expected but not totally. I didn’t expect anyone to talk about Indian IT but I was surprised that no one mentioned even the obvious stuff like yoga and spicy food. It’s like living in an alternate reality
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It was an interesting blog. I live with a chinese guy ,who doen’t believe that I live on vegetables only.
I think, it is a case from our side as well,how many of us know that there is no such language as Chinese.Anyways, things are changing and we would see that china will open more to the world.
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Your reporting on China is some of the best out there. Other “man in China” journalists fail to capture Chinese life, favoring political intrigue, trade data, etc.
You might even become better than this than the Man himself: James Fallows of the Atlantic.
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Reshma Reply:
March 13th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Thank you!
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Thank you for the wonderful blog! As someone from the US, it’s doubly interesting to learn about perspectives from both India and China.
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sry i just know how to write my name in arabic
) anyway however in arabic when i read some thing like that i just say “raee” i donot know how to say it in english . thanks
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Awesome post! and wonderful blog..you have definitely gained a fan. I can almost feel transported beyond the mighty Himalayas to the unknown land of China. What is interesting is that I travel between Goa and Delhi frequently. The same distance towards north-east would take me to Beijing. A place where I am Yindu and belong to a country of beautiful dancing girls!!
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Reshma Reply:
March 20th, 2009 at 5:37 am
Thanks!
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Funny! Just ONE bus sporting Incredible India ad? This reminds me of a friend whose fervent wish was to trade in shares, and who bought one share of ICICI Bank
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There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points also.
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It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place.
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Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
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ohhh nice info
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Hi there, I found your blog via Google while searching for first aid for a heart attack and your post looks very interesting for me.
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Such a usefule blog…wow !!!!
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thanks !! very helpful post!
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